On Sunday night, I will give a talk in Wisconsin.
Entrance is limited to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election.
How does he know? Is this public information?
I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.
This is super important.
Important. And insane. Who does elections like this? I assume he's had his lawyers check out the legality, but I'd like to hear an explanation of why this isn't illegal. Is it just that it's so weird the legislature hasn't written a statute criminalizing it yet? There may be statutes against paying someone to vote for a particular candidate, but he's not even saying who he wants us to vote for. And he's not paying us to vote, he's showing us how to get into the category of persons whose names are entered in a raffle.
This reminds me of a Wisconsin case some years back where 3 young men, "armed with shovels, a crowbar, and a box of condoms," gave up in the middle of an effort to dig up the body of a recently deceased young woman. At first, it seemed as though none of the criminal statutes covered what they did. Just because something should be a crime doesn't mean that it is currently a crime. Get creative enough, and you may slip through the cracks. But would you dare? Musk dares.
I wouldn't even dare to endure the lines and crowding involved in showing up for a chance at $1,000,000. I'm risk averse. Musk isn't.
UPDATE: Musk has deleted the above-linked tweet, and I'm seeing "Musk butts up against Wisconsin state law with (now deleted) $1 million check giveaway/Election law experts were skeptical about the billionaire’s move" (Politico).
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I have thought more than once that, if I ever win a billion+ dollar PowerBall type drawing, I will run for Mayor or Governor and say if I'm elected, I'll give everyone in the city or state $700 or $1000 or whatever. I think this should be legal -- how is it different in principle from saying "If you vote for me, I'll support your favorite program"? Either way, you're rewarding a voter monetarily.
EBT? There are diverse precedents.
Yes it is public information that you voted in an election.
How you voted is not but that you voted is. Always has been.
I'm not voting 'til Tuesday btw, so I guess I'm out of luck. I just watched the DOGE interview. Very informative.
People talk about getting messages that "you haven't voted yet" all the time. Who you vote for is secret but the fact that you voted in an election is a public record otherwise there would be no way to dispute an instance of double voting in different jurisdictions or by someone requesting a mail-in ballot in your name.
You think there aren't Democrats who would happily take his money for voting against Brad?
I’m a broken record here, but voting for judges is a giant mistake. Maybe this election will change minds.
So the biggest crime is Musk is doing publicly what the Left has done for the last 30 years?
MadisonMan said... "I'll give everyone in the city or state $700 or $1000 or whatever. "
McGovern did this in his 1972 Whitehouse bid. I was in kindergarten and I remember want to get the $1,000 he was offering everyone. Last time I wanted a Democrat to win.
Here's your explanation for why it's not illegal: there is no reason it should be.
Musk does not generally appeal to the risk averse, in my experience. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I'll be very interested to see how this works out.
Oh come on Ann. Billionaire IL Gov Pritzker has been meddling in Wisconsin elections for quite some time now. Iowa too (why do you think Prizker was the one who leaked the fake news about the Selzer poll that showed Kamala closing on Trump in Iowa? Selzer then retired in disgrace, having sold her credibility to Pritzker's dollars and retired to a beach to lick her wounds and count her cash).
I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying that Dems have done this forever (see astroturf Flea Bag protests) and Musk is merely correcting the balance to level the field.
It is very important to Dems to control those electoral map redraws that will happen immediately if Pritzker outspends Musk
Why is it "insane"? or even outrageous?
Serious question, not an argument.
So, NO to laws against gravedigging, YES to laws preventing people from giving away money. It's gonna take a while to figure out the libtard logic.
It's Wisconsin. It would be enough to offer free beer, never mind a million bucks.
I think allowing ballots that do not have a person attached should be illegal. I think endless vote counting should be illegal.
We all know Democxrats cheat. It should be illegal.
Wow. That Wisconsin case. One of the brothers went on to a crime-filled, short life:
The Dane County Sheriff's Office identified 38-year-old Alexander Grunke of Middleton as the man who died by an apparent suicide in an Albion home early Thursday morning. He was a person of interest in the murder of a woman he shared a child with in Dubuque County, Iowa.
At least Musk, a private citizen, is trying to bribe people with his own money. Dems bribe people with other people's money.
It was recently legal in Wisconsin to abuse a corpse? Geez...
It's legal because it is only open to those who have already voted. What he is buying with the money are attendees to his talk and the publicity the raffle brings.
"It was recently legal in Wisconsin to abuse a corpse? Geez..."
Well, Wisconsin has had a corpse-like figure in the governor's mansion since 2019 and the U.S. had an actual corpse as President from 2021-2025.
"How does he know? Is this public information?"
I don't know how this is handled in Wisconsin, but in North Carolina, the local boards of elections keep records of who receives a ballot. This is helpful to prevent fraud. Those records are not to my knowledge confidential, therefore there must be a procedure available to obtain that information.
I suspect Musk has a procedure of his own. Perhaps he requires the winner of the raffle to affirm his vote in such a way that the prize is void if the winner has not in fact voted. Perhaps the affirmation waives any and all confidentiality guarantees granted by Wisconsin law pertinent to a request for the winner's records on file at his local elections authority.
When you vote early, your paper ballot is inserted into an envelope that has your name on the outside. They're supposed to take the folded paper out and separate it from the envelope, but I don't feel protected in my secret ballot.
Lets get back to in-person voting. We could broaden the in-person to two-three days. All counting occurs in each precinct within in a few hours of the close. All over-seas absentee ballots must be in ahead of time.
I wouldn't even dare to endure the lines and crowding involved in showing up for a chance at $1,000,000. I'm risk averse. Musk isn't.
This is a normal. On average women are much more risk averse and men are much more risk tolerant.
Also men are much less affected by anticipated loss of social status. Women tend to be paralyzed and cower in front of social approbation.
Free societies require men and women who are not afraid. But it is mostly men who actually stand up.
@The Professor - Being risk averse is part and parcel of being in.your 70's. I no longer want to find the perfect wave, trade guitar licks with Eric, sail to the West Indies or bed some hot 50 year old babe. My only real priority is reaching 80 relatively intact.
What is the Wisconsin state tax on $1 million income?
It's legal because it is only open to those who have already voted. What he is buying with the money are attendees to his talk and the publicity the raffle brings.
Exactly. He's not influencing HOW you vote. The invitation is open to anyone who voted in the election, no matter how the vote was cast. He's trying to motivate Republicans. But really, a Musk-hating pink-haired dude is just as likely to win the million as anyone else who can attend.
There is a reason people who work for the government vote for Democrats.
It is purely transactional.
Any law against what Musk is doing would have to have a law against Government employees and people who receive government grants voting.
And if THIS triggers you to want reform, what about Democrat GOTV efforts that literally bribe people while dragging them to the polls? All the cigarettes and booze and cash handed out in inner cities (the same ones who always need to "extend" voting hours by the way) to homeless and marginalized people is surely more disruptive to honest elections than rewarding people who have already voted without the "chaperone" involved in my example.
It was recently legal in Wisconsin to abuse a corpse?
If I recall that case correctly, they gave up before actually disinterring the corpse. So they hadn't yet done anything illegal.
@Althouse, yes, people will see your vote if you vote absentee. There are many many voters who vote absentee however, so poll workers are just churning through the ballots. Perhaps if you are a famous person, or a direct neighbor, a pollworker might remember to look and see. What would they do with that information however that doesn't flout the work ethic of poll workers?
IIRC, he did this in the 2024 election, too. He’s path cleared the legality hurdles.
How is it legal that the liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court think they can draw congressional maps?
Even if you can't win the one million, you can go to X and sign the Musk's Superpac petition "against activist judges." You get $100 as a Wisconsinite if you sign and give your name, address, email and number. You also get another $100 if someone else signs and uses your email or phone number as a referral. Free $200. Take the money and run, and Vote for Brad Schimel. Wisconsin's frothing libtards can sign as well and get the money. Great.
During the Presidential election I got a $47 check for signing that petition, plus another for my brother's referral. The checks actually do show up.
Important. And insane. Who does elections like this? Really? It's not as insane as the COVID absentee voter fraud that installed Biden and dingbat Kamala.
It was recently legal in Wisconsin to abuse a corpse?
It was frowned upon.
Maybe Musk will be arrested by police in hooded sweatshirts and masks, like the Tufts graduate student was, and spirited away to someplace like Canada or Greenland before a writ of habeas corpus can be filed.
This reminds me of a Wisconsin case some years back where 3 young men, "armed with shovels, a crowbar, and a box of condoms," gave up in the middle of an effort to dig up the body of a recently deceased young woman.
Whatever happened to holding a boombox over your head blasting Peter Gabriel's song "In Your Eyes"?
“…armed with shovels, a crowbar, and a box of condoms…”
Armed with a box of condoms? Geez. They should have at least brought some flowers or chocolates first. Gavone.
And “Armed with a box of condoms” sounds odd. I’m pretty sure they’re intended for another appendage.
But would you dare?
That depends. How recently deceased?
...insane. Who does elections like this? I assume he's had his lawyers check out the legality, but I'd like to hear an explanation of why this isn't illegal.
...We interrupt our regularly scheduled indulging of the leftie judges claptrap to bring you some 'Why isn't this legal thing illegal when their side does it?' poppycock...
In some ways, this case mirrors the plot of Snow White. It's okay when a Prince does it, but when some ordinary Joe tries it, it's necrophilia.
I always tell my grandsons that it's more efficient to ask for forgiveness then to try and get permission. The real theft from regulation is time, precious highly limited always fleeting. It has eliminated a go for it assholes and elbows attitude and has replaced it with an entropic middle age incantation that makes Kafka seem to be optimistic.
Musk appears to have now removed that post.
I thought it was a clever and low-effort way to make people aware of a minor special election.
There's a reason why so many giveaways have the words, "NO PURCHASE NECESSARY," in the fine print. I suspect that there is also some legal disclaimer in the fine print here as well.
Speaking of necrophilia.
Left Bank.
Musk is a citizen. You guys are the ones in masks and hoodies.
Your hair and your aura (just guessing on that one but cmon) you would stand an excellent chance of catching Elon's eye. In fact, he may be looking for you there. Better show!
https://www.wkow.com/news/state/wisconsin-doj-plans-to-take-legal-action-against-elon-musk-for-election-related-cash-prize/article_267ca5c7-4f92-4eaf-b6fe-3c74e29d78df.html
“MADISON (WKOW) -- Attorney General Josh Kaul (D-WI) filed a lawsuit on Friday against Elon Musk and his political action committee America PAC, claiming the billionaire tried to buy votes in Wisconsin's Supreme Court election.
The lawsuit states a million dollar cash prize Musk announced he would be giving to two voters who attend a Sunday rally he is holding violates Wisconsin law.
"Wisconsin law forbids anyone from offering or promising to give anything of value to an elector in order to induce the elector to go to the polls, vote or refrain from voting, or vote for a particular person," the lawsuit says.”
Rusty said...
"Left Bank.
Musk is a citizen. You guys are the ones in masks and hoodies."
Boston Globe: Who dem guys in masks?
The Trump administration revoked the visa of a Tufts graduate student on March 21 but never notified her before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed her on a Somerville sidewalk Tuesday and took her into custody, records show.
Musk collecting branches of government?
I bet during Biden's administration Musk coulda formed a 501C NGO and gptten a grant of several million, or even a few billion, to redistribute to voters under the guise of voter issue edumacation as long as the grant application had "climate change" in its abstract.
Can Musk purchase the civil liberties of people in Wisconsin for $20 million?
This Wisconsin resident doesn’t think so. Early voting has doubled the early voting for the 2023 vote that flipped the court.
That must have been one good looking corpse.
The response here is very telling as few if any addressed the post with any veracity. The shit stirrers on the right knew they could not defend this.
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